Yes I know, I know, I can barely keep our plans for this year straight and already I'm worried about what comes next! However, I really think I've got this year worked out in a manner that I'm pleased with (finally!), so I thought I'd go ahead & share my plans for the future. Granted they may ever-so-slightly change at any given moment, but I'm equally passionate about our next course of study, so I know that we will get to it when we're through with Sonlighters Core 6 [Ancient history through the Reformation].
Incidentally, I've done the math and even with my plans to slow down on Core 6, I've estimated that we'll be finished by the end of December, 2009. That allows us 10 additional weeks for "extras," time to finish up our other curricula for the year and enables us to start our new school year in January (though hopefully I'll be in India during the first part of January, so we'll see). For some reason, this pleases me tremendously!
Now the natural progression of things would be to continue on with Core 7 [World History 2]. However, much of that material can be picked up as we study U.S. History, so I'm not going to worry about it immediately. Instead, we'll focus on Core 5 [The Eastern Hemisphere]...except that I will likely re-work this into a study of Geography and World Cultures, with heavy emphasis on the oft-neglected Eastern Hemisphere.
First, the basics...for Language Arts, we'll continue with Rod & Staff English (grammar), Living Memory (memory work), Sonlight (dictation), ? spelling and Handwriting Without Tears. For reading, we will use either CLE or Sonlight's Readers and for writing, IEW's Fables, Myths and Fairy Tales.
For Logic, we will use Grid Perplexors, or something of that nature and for Math, Singapore.. For Latin, we will continue with Latina Christiana and Ludere Latine. I may also persuade my husband to teach us Hindi, or enroll the children in an Arabic class at the local Islamic Society (we had a Muslim exchange student last Fall and they expressed an interest in this).
Science is currently an unknown, but will most likely be Classical Astronomy and Sonlight Science 5 (depending on changes made in the upcoming catalog.)
We'll continue with Time for Kids (4-6) and add TFK Around the World for Current Events.
And as usual, I am full of ideas for history and geography...beginning, of course, with Sonlight Core 5. First, we will not be using the core "as is," because I seriously dislike Sonlight's entire approach to the study -- "Encounter the mysterious Eastern Hemisphere. A place where 90% of the world's unevangelized people live... I'm sorry, but I find that very condescending. Thus we will not be utilizing any of the missionary stories or the "Unreached Peoples" DVD. However, there appear to be many wonderful books in the core that can be used with some careful pre-reading.
We'll also be subscribing to Faces (People, Places & Cultures), another wonderful magazine from Cobblestone Publishing and utilizing the Trail Guide to World Geography curriculum (I really want them to have a good overview of world geography before we move on to U.S. History). We'll supplement this with Geography Through Art and Art From Many Hands as well as books from these lists (to replace the Sonlight books we won't be reading, plus the usual for extra reading):
- Living Books for World Geography from Home School Favorites
- Growing Up Around the World: Books as Passports to Global Understanding for Children in the U.S. from the American Library Association
- Supplementing Sonlight SL-5 from Paula's Archive
- Amazon Listmania! Core 5 Supplements
- Middle East Resources
- China Resources
- Japan Resources
- Russia Resources
- Hear the Voice of the Griot! A Guide to African Geography, History and Culture by Betty K. Staley
- Material World: A Global Family Portrait by Peter Menzel
- Hungry Planet: What the World Eats by Peter Menzel
Dominic, Maddie, Elon and cousin McKenna in their Indian finery :-)0 Comments:
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